Eugen wrote:Just a few quick words about 3ds max, in no particular order...
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All in all, it works - but how!
The question is, do you like such a workflow and UI? Time travel back to the nineties...
Frankenmax... they really earn this title (more than Maya)!!!
If I start imagining I'd have to go back to this raving mess, I want to coil up in a corner, sobbing...
I don't agree with some points, but many I do agree.
Ancient architecture...
It is, especially in the animation department, but not in all areas. It's viewport is one of the fastest I've worked with(for non-deforming meshes). It also feels like many tools work faster because the sdk allows for lower level access than SI's SDK.
no render region
There is. It won't render in the viewport, but you can render a region you specify from the viewport or the framebuffer.
no well-customizable UI
You can create your own toolbars and dock them wherever you'd like. You can also create your own panels for the ribbon interface. But yeah it's nothing special. I think all DCC are like this. Never really liked the .Net interface choice. I think they are using Windows form widgets together with some xaml Ribbons and a bit of Qt.
hard-wired size and layout in the modify panel
Yeah, you can expand it though so you have more columns. A large screen is a requirement.
no multi-PPGs (only when you select instances)
I think no other DCC besides Softimage has this function. There is a script for it though. It's called Modifier Modifier Zorb. Basically what you can do is mass edit and randomize modifier properties of selected objects. Handy when you need it, but still not as cool as SI's PPG system.
no render passes comparable to SI
There is state sets. Of course not as good as Softimage's. A bit buggy, but better than nothing. There are also 3rd party tools called RP Manager and LP Manager.
viewport artifacts with tools, tools that quit when navigating the viewport (they might have fixed that)...
Never had any issues. Must have been your graphics card drivers. Tools that quit when moving the camera have been fixed.
still many tools based on triangles instead of polygons, internally, and strange tri to poly conversion workflows.
Which tools? Yeah I agree it's a bit annoying 3dsmax often converts your object to an editable mesh when collapsing the stack.
Strange, redundant subdivision surface approach...
If you want to model while having your model subdivided, you can add a Turbosmooth modifier and click the "Show end result on/off" toggle to see it subdivided. If you don't like the low poly cage you see, you can also toggle that off.
Personally I prefer max's modeling hard surface tools way more than SI's. The symmetry modifier makes it easy to model your object symmetrical without having a hard seam in the middle you normally get from using a Instance Mirror workflow.
The basic workflow with the modifier stack is simple and straightforward, ok. But there are redundancies in the modifiers - just an example: the edit poly modifier has a weld tool, but there is another dedicated weld modifier as well (I wonder if that even maps to the same code internally...).
Modifiers are operators for non destructive workflow. Using the weld tool in the editable polygon toolset is destructive. By using a modifier you can animate it's properties.
There are a lot of small things I like when working with 3DS Max.
- Holding Shift + Drag Move = Drag out a clone array, or extrude edge if in edge component mode.
- Spinners. Right clicking on them resets the value to zero / minimum. Holding alt and control makes spinners increment/decrement faster/slower.
- Like I said earlier Symmetrical modeling is really easy to do and gives you a good end result of your mesh.
- CAD like selection. There's an option in the settings to enable this. When making a marquee selection it makes it very easy to select polygons/edges. Making a marquee selection from left to right only selects components completely encompassed in your marquee, while dragging from right to left selects everything it touches.
- Constraints on component manipulation. For example you can constrain vertices to only move along their normals or the edges they are connected.
- I'm quite happy with the UV mapping tools. Pelt mapping works good. Don't like SI's uv tools that much.
- Offset a whole animation track by just moving the object. You can also easily move keyframes without having to expand the curve editor.
- You can add several type of layers in the animation controller of an object. For example one which adds turbulence to the position and one which you can freely move the object. You can stack, nest and weight as many as you'd like.
- CAT for quick and dirty rigs and procedural animation.
Things I don't like:
- P-Flow. It's very limited, slow and unintuitive if you've used ICE.
- The curve editor. My main reason not to pick this as your main tool for Character Animation. I just don't like the way you can modify curves in 3DS max.
- The UI, but it's doable.
- Maxscript, because I like Python.
- The bone/skinning toolset. Softimage is way more enjoyable on this front.
- Parameter wiring. Not as fun as dragging and dropping parameters in PPG's.
There's a plugin for basically everything. Imho 3DS Max complements SI a lot. I wouldn't use it for character animation though.
